Why ‘White Is Beautiful’ Among Filipinos
/The primary indicator of beauty in the Tagalog language is maputi or having a white, clear complexion. The proper word for this is fair complexioned. However, the correct description in the Filipino measure of perfect beauty is the possession of a fine, racially European skin color (read: white). Peach-colored skin is also an attribute of desired racial hybridity, of which white is the dominant hue.
In colonialism, predominantly white wealthy countries subjugated poor countries whose people are mainly of color. The Philippines was not spared from this historical injustice. Slavery was worse. People were taken out of their countries against their will to be enslaved, resulting in deeply rooted racism considered to be America’s original sin.
What were Filipinos thinking the moment they laid eyes on the Spaniards who landed on their shores? The conquering Spaniards, with their light skin, statuesque bodies, prominent noses, and different hair colors were quite an apparition, startlingly unlike the Chinese traders and indigenous Aetas, who were also physically distinguishable from the Malay inhabitants of the archipelago. The Spaniards looked like gods more than intruders and invaders.
How could you say “no” to the Spaniards who ruled the Philippines with the Cross and the sword? Their being masters and conquerors made them paragons of power and beauty. Furthermore, when Filipinos went to Catholic churches the angelic light-skinned statues of saints that they venerated (except St. Martin de Porres and the Black Nazarene of the Quiapo Church) deepened their attraction to whiteness. Despite their priestly vows of celibacy, Spanish friars became biological propagators of white genes. These indiscretions and eventual intermarriages produced the biracial, fair-skinned mestizo-mestiza beauty standard.
Antique ivory statue
The Americans ruled the Philippines for 50 years as their only formal colony, way less than the Spaniards did, but their influence was more lasting. From fairy tales like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to songs like “White Christmas,” Filipinos were immersed in a culture that celebrated whiteness. In Hollywood movies they watched, they imagined themselves as Vivien Leigh/Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind or John Wayne in his cowboy movies. It is also in the American era that English became the medium of instruction at all grade levels, as well as the language of the elite. To this day, many Filipinos speak Filipino, but think in English.
After World War II, the white paragon of beauty persisted, popularized by movie studios and their stables of mestizo and mestiza stars. Also, there were American television shows (e.g., “Bewitched” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”) and commercials (e.g., Goodyear tires and L&M cigarettes), which all featured handsome white men and women. Mestizas were the choice Filipina contestants sent to international beauty pageants.
Enter Gemma Cruz Araneta in 1964, when she won Miss International. Tall, smart, coming from the social elite, and kayumanggi (brown), she set a new standard of beauty. Brown suddenly became beautiful! Then, in the 1970s, petite and dark Nora Aunor, became a movie sensation. The masses easily identified with her, and catapulted her to stardom.
Miss International Gemma Cruz Araneta
Singer-Actress Nora Aunor
Light skin continues to offer greater opportunities in the Philippines. In television shows and advertisements, the principal characters or those in power are usually light-skinned, whereas the subjugated ones, like maids and workers, are brown-skinned. It did not take long for skin-lightening products to become popular. Experimental and unregulated, they can be dangerous, if not lethal. Many men and women use them desperately, thinking that their lives would be elevated economically and aesthetically.
Skin whitening products
Romance novels in Tagalog and Taglish are currently very popular in the Philippines. They have legions of fans nationwide. At the outset, their book covers disturbingly had Caucasian characters to make the novels attractive and salable. Publishers and illustrators believed that they were not only selling fantasies of love, but also the absurdity that love could most excitingly happen to people with light complexion. Now, romance novels have Asian characters on their covers, although they are still light-skinned. This reflects the popularity of Korean soap operas that have flooded Philippine cable, not only because of their interesting plots, but also because most of the stars represent the gold standard for fine and smooth light skin.
Is there a need for a national campaign in the Philippines to celebrate brownness? “Whiteness is better” is seemingly ingrained in Philippine culture. Until Filipinos learn to appreciate their natural skin color, striving to be white will always be an uphill and losing pursuit.
Rey E. de la Cruz, Ed.D., Penelope Flores, Ph.D., and Delia R. Barcelona, Ph.D., write from Chicago, San Francisco, and Jersey City, respectively. Lifelong friends, they are graduates of the University of Chicago and enjoy anything Pinoy.
